Thank you to everyone who supported the Washington Humane Society’s 25th Annual Bark Ball! With more than 750 guests and 350 of their four-legged friends at the Washington Hilton, this year’s silver anniversary event made history, raising over $500,000 (a new record) to benefit the critical programs and services of the Washington Humane Society (WHS). We can’t thank our generous community enough for going above and beyond to show how much DC loves DC animals for an incredible two and a half decades.

A celebrated Washington tradition, the Bark Ball is DC’s only black-tie gala for leading figures in the business, political, sports, media, and entertainment worlds and their canine companions. ABC7 Senior Political Reporter and WHS supporter Scott Thuman served as an outstanding emcee for the evening. Another special guest included Megan Hilty, star of NBC’s hit musical drama “Smash.” We are incredibly grateful to Scott, a WHS Humane Hero, for continuing to show his support for the Washington Humane Society in new and meaningful ways, and to Megan, a dog owner and animal lover, for traveling to Washington to celebrate this special night with us!

Guests enjoyed exciting silent and live auctions, a delicious dinner, an engaging program, an adoptable dog parade, and other special surprises in honor of this year’s milestone anniversary. We are pleased to report that pup Angelique was adopted by a guest the very next day, and dogs Boss, Radish, and Jiminy are also well on their way to finding forever families after getting to know our amazing supporters following their Bark Ball debuts. We were also joined at the event by Bill and Roseanne Cinnamond, who adopted dog Grams at last year’s event after watching him walk the stage with ABC7 reporter Natasha Barrett!

We would like to extend a tremendous thank you to all of our incredible sponsors, especiallyDonald Hoffman and Johanna Geber; Excel Services Corporation; Kindy French & Emanuel Friedman; U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and UPS.

Finally, we are grateful to our amazing volunteers, without whom this event would not be possible! Our volunteers are critical as they dedicate their time and energy to ensure the success of all of our events and programs.